Labor’s environment minister Peter Garrett has given approval for the opening of a new uranium mine in South Australia, the “Beverly Four Mile” project.
Garrett founded the Nuclear Disarmament Party in the 1980s and sung anti-nuclear ballads as front-man for the rock group Midnight Oil.
The Four Mile Project will be undertaken by American company General Atomics.
Traditional owners and environment groups opposed to the mine are outraged at the proposed use of the in situ leach technique.
Friends of the Earth anti-nuclear campaigner Jim Green explained, “ISL mining involves pumping an acidic solution into an aquifer, dissolving the uranium ore and other heavy metals and pumping the solution back to the surface. After the uranium has been separated, liquid radioactive waste—containing radionuclides, heavy metals and acid—is simply dumped in the aquifer.”
Garrett approves new uranium mine
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